Survey respondent Dr Tom Evans, a GP in Northamptonshire, said: ’There are simply not enough GPs for us to take this on right now. Increasing workload and the inability to recruit colleagues meant that I almost had to close the surgery. I am not alone.’

Ockham Healthcare director and former NHS chief executive Ben Gowland said many GPs feel ‘unable to carry on’ under current pressures.

He said: ’More than 70% of GPs say they are extremely concerned about the problems their practice is currently facing.

’Urgent action is needed to reverse the spiral of decline that general practice is in or we may be the generation that witnesses the end of general practice as we know it today.’

So the government will just sit back and let financial capital forces put pressure on GP practices until finally there is no longer any GP practice that will take on new patients, despite major pressure from NHSE.